Letter 38 ~ October 6, 1918

I reassure my mother that I'm too thrifty to spend as much as 10 cents on a candy bar very often.

Addressed to Mrs. Hattie P. Griffing, Manhattan, KS

Camp Republican
Sunday Eve. October 6, 1918

Dear Folks,

I got the package today containing the leggings and my pen. It sure seems good to be able to write with a pen once more. I got your package yesterday with the writing paper and candy. Believe me, the candy was sure appreciated. Now that the canteen is quarantined, men go down there and buy chocolate bars and peddle them in camp for 10 cents apiece but I don’t patronize them very much because it is a holdup [at that price]. I never was so crazy for candy. I didn’t eat much at home but I had honey and jelly, etc. [to satisfy my sweet tooth].

You didn’t need to send me so much money but if we aren’t paid before long, I will have to break into it. If we do get paid, I will send it back. I spend most of my money on stamps.

I wonder whose [corn] binder Willis is using. Whose ever it is, I’ll bet he’s having an awful time. I don’t see how the people on College Hill could pull off a doings like Mr. Hays’ sale without someone getting sore. It is human nature.

Tell Carol to keep on getting good grades and I will get her something when I get a chance. Tell her to write me another letter.

That man who is married and bunks with me got a pass to Manhattan Saturday night and had his wife come up from Wamego [KS]. He sure was homesick but he came home happy. He said it cost him $25 but he didn’t care a bit.

Say Bill [Willis], I’ll bet you a dollar I’ll get to help you shuck corn next fall. Have you learned anything more about what Niehenke is going to do with his place?

This has been the strangest Sunday I have spent since I came to camp. Nobody to be seen around the Hostess House. A good many cases [of influenza] go out of here everyday and I am afraid it is fixing to rain. If it does, it will be bad but if the weather stayed like today, I believe the epidemic would run its course in about a week. You should have seen the hill behind the camp today. Every man had to take his bed clothes out and spread them out in the sun on the hill. They made the hill look like a great huge patch work quilt. Well there isn’t much news. It’s the same old drag. I am well so far and expect to get a pass sometime.

Goodnight with lots of love, -- Ward

Footnotes:

• Louis Niehenke, born about 1866, had a farm north of the Griffing's on College Hill. The Griffing's never purchased the farm but they did "farm" it for many years in the 1920's and 30's.